


Inconveniently Wet

by OldTsuki



Series: Inconveniently [5]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Background Bughead, Breaking and Entering, It's raining in Riverdale, Just some friends hanging out as their clothes dry, Serpent King Jughead, Sweet Pea's real name, Truth or truth, background choni, southside high school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-20 16:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldTsuki/pseuds/OldTsuki
Summary: After a few days of rain at the Serpent campsite, the kids are ready to dry off. Sweet Pea suggests breaking into Southside High, which has been empty ever since Mayor McCoy shut it down. Inside, not only do they find some shelter, but a few tidbits of the past.Part 5 of the Southside Showcase challenge, and my series "Inconveniently"! Written for day 5: Southside High.





	Inconveniently Wet

**Author's Note:**

> It feels like school files multiply when your back is turned. Like you clean out a file cabinet, and you turn around, and suddenly it's full of photocopies again. Anyone else?

Camping for an extended length of time was something that only certain, outdoors-type people truly enjoyed. Camping in the rain was something that would get old quickly for anyone, though. Since it had been raining for two days without stopping, everyone was feeling the impact of the weather. Tents were flooding, clothes were damp, hair was frazzled and dripping, and tempers were high.

“There’s a whole high school sitting completely empty like three blocks away,” Sweet Pea commented, meaning Southside High. They were sitting in the eight-person tent that Cheryl had donated the day before, uncovered in the attic at Thornhill. Jughead and a few others had helped to pitch it in the rain, struggling to fit poles together and put the rain cover in place while it was pouring relentlessly.

He was beginning to suspect that he would never be completely warm and dry again in his life. His hair was a permanent mess over his eyes, its only purpose to funnel water in larger quantities into his vision. When he rung out his hat at the end of the day, holding it under a corner of the rain cover on his own two-person tent, at least a half-gallon of water had gushed out of the beloved knit accessory. The suggestion that they might take shelter in the school they’d been rudely evicted from sounded like a godsend--undoubtably, the building would be dry, at least.

“We can find a way inside,” Jughead agreed. Though his air mattress was floating in at least an inch of water, his sleeping bag was only slightly damp thus far. Imagining what it would be like to sleep somewhere quiet and dry, he said, “We could stay there until this clears up.”

Several people were nodding in agreement. It seemed like there was hardly any objection. With that, Sweet Pea said, “Let’s meet in front of the school in half an hour. We’ll go in small groups so that Minetta doesn’t get suspicious.”

Jughead didn’t even care that he was issuing orders again. He was too tired and wet to do anything about it. At least Betty was warm and dry across town, housesitting her own home. Though he knew that he could have taken shelter with the Coopers or the Andrews, he couldn’t just abandon the Serpents. For the time, each of them was caught up in their own responsibilities.

He rolled up his sleeping bag and stuffed some clean clothes inside, wrapped it in a trash bag, then zipped his tent closed. Setting off on his own, Jughead kept his head down and let the rain pour off his hair like a waterfall over his eyes. A car passed, spraying water over the sidewalk and Jughead indiscriminately. Glancing up at the driver, he swore out loud and shook off his arms. Unfortunately, he wasn’t any more soaked now than he had been before.

When the looming hulk of Southside High came into view, Jughead repressed another shiver. It didn’t feel like that long ago that he’d self-imposed a hunger strike and chained himself to the front of the building. His dad had brought him burgers in the middle of the night. At that thought, Jughead hoped that his dad was okay. Since he'd come back to Riverdale from Toledo, he'd been virtually just as absent as when he'd gone to another state. That told Jughead something had happened, but with everything else he had to worry about he just couldn't muster the emotional energy necessary to work it out yet.

He began slowly walking around the building once he reached it, not seeing any of his friends. Watching for a window that seemed low enough, he glanced back at the street to make sure that no one was watching his slow progress. When he looked back, he saw Toni approaching, a similar bag of personal items slung over her shoulder.

“Hey, Jughead!” she called, not loudly enough for her voice to carry across the street in the rain. He turned back, meeting her halfway along the side of the building.

Together, they continued canvassing in search of a good entry point. Both stopped before a low window at the back of the building. “I can probably lift you up there,” Jughead observed, glancing over at Toni. She was nodding, already searching around on the ground for something heavy enough to throw through the window. 

They came across a large rock, and Jughead hurled it at the window with as much force as he could gather. The window broke, the shattering sound lost in a sudden clap of thunder. Jughead slid off his jacket and tossed it halfway over the sill, trying to keep Toni from getting sliced up. Turning, he cupped his hands and gestured for her to step into them.

As Toni’s feet disappeared inside, Jughead pulled his jacket free and gratefully put it back on. It didn’t give him much warmth, but it was better than nothing. Jogging back to the front of the building, he saw Toni gesturing Sweet Pea and Fangs inside as he rounded the corner. Jughead slid into the dark school and gave his eyes a moment to adjust, shaking himself off and wiping the water out of his eyes again. This time, it wasn’t an exercise in futility.

He looked around, seeing the metal detectors that used to greet them every morning, now fallen into disuse in the abandoned school. Toni was walking past them already, twisting her hair into one long rope and squeezing the water out of it. Jughead pulled his hat off his head and rung it out too, letting the water pool on the ground of the entryway.

“We have a couch in the teacher’s lounge,” Toni called over her shoulder. The others began moving in unison toward the location she’d suggested. Jughead trailed behind--honestly, in the short time he’d been a student here, he hadn’t figured out where exactly the teacher’s lounge was located.

Sweet Pea kicked the door open, grinning. When he saw the others looking at him, he explained, “Always wanted to do that, when we were going here.”

They made their way into the room and found two couches waiting for them, along with the copy machine and some other abandoned supplies. Bags were dropped near the couches, where they'd inevitably end up hanging out after they explored the once-forbidden space. Everyone spread out, poking through the contents of the room. The vending machine was displaying one lonely package of microwave popcorn and a pop tart, which was hanging halfway off the spiral dispenser and looking like it would drop with a good shake. Without hesitation, Sweet Pea shouldered the machine.

Jughead glanced away, looking at the stacks of papers that were carelessly thrown about the room. He saw a few legal documents, things teachers must have forgotten to destroy when they’d left the building for the last time. Moving them aside, he discovered that they were sitting on top of a few old file boxes of records.

Glancing at the typed names on the manilla tabs, he smirked. “Hey, Toni,” he said, looking over at her. “Want to see what sort of student they thought you were?”

She came to his side and peered into the box, reaching for the folder before he could open it. “Holy shit,” she commented, scanning the pages. “Is this just for last year, or are there files that go back any further?”

Jughead was looking for the inevitable _Forsythe Pendleton III_ that was bound to be there, though he anticipated a much slimmer file than Toni’s. 

She snatched another file as he passed it, her eyes lighting up. “No way,” she breathed, turning to look across the room. “It’s Bartolomeu Conner’s file.”

Before Jughead could even coherently begin to form the question that rose to his mind, Sweet Pea was snatching the file out of Toni’s fingers. “I’ve told you once, and I’ve told you twice. Say it again, Toni, and you’re dead.”

A smile spread over Jughead’s face. He was amused as only someone who shared the unique pain of an unbearably formal name hidden by an equally ridiculous nickname really could be. He crossed his arms and regarded his tall friend like he’d just been given a particularly useful gift. “What was that, Toni? A humiliating birth name?” he asked, glancing at her and seeing that she was already laughing at his quick reaction. “You seem particularly adept at finding those out.”

Sweet Pea caught a fistful of Jughead’s shirt and glowered at him, which caused him to immediately raise his hands in mock surrender. “Forget what you heard, _Forsythe,_ ” he growled. Toni doubled over in hysterics next to them, gasping for breath through her giggles.

Laughing as well, Jughead said, “Sticks and stones, _Bartolomeu_.”

He let go of Jughead’s damp shirt with another scowl, stalking back over to the vending machine and resuming his onslaught. 

Toni peeled off some of her wet layers of flannel, hanging the articles of clothing over chairs to dry. Seeing her do so, Jughead thought that it wasn’t a bad idea. His leather jacket went first, since it had absorbed the bulk of the rain for the last few days. With another maliciously teasing look, Toni said, “You’re going to get pneumonia if you leave that wet hat on your head, Jug.”

He ignored her, grabbing a stack of files and settling onto the couch with them. The part of him that truly enjoyed investigating things with Betty realized that this was a chance to learn a whole bunch of secret things about people they may or may not know around town. Putting his feet on a nearby chair, he stacked the files on his lap and began to read.

Toni flopped onto the couch across from him, groaning as she turned another page in her own file. Jughead looked up curiously and said, “Anything good, _Antionette_?”

She jokingly flipped him off. “If I tell you, then you have to answer a question for me, Jones.”

He frowned. “What, are we five? You really want to play truth or dare?”

Toni glanced over at Sweet Pea, who finally got the pop tart to fall into the bottom of the machine. He snatched it out of the bay triumphantly, tearing it open as he crossed the room to drop onto the other end of the couch with Jughead. She smirked and said, “No, not truth or dare, because all of us here are stupid enough to do anything that anyone else dares them to do.”

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes and said, “Seriously, Toni? Truth or truth, again?”

She raised one shoulder, sitting up on the couch and looking over at Jughead. “It could be interesting, Sweets. I don’t know half as much about Jughead as I do about you.”

Now that he understood her game, he shook his head. “Oh no. My life is not that interesting, I promise. I hate doing this sort of thing, actually.”

Sweet Pea grinned as widely as a jack-o-lantern and leaned forward, bringing his hands together like a supervillain. He stared levelly at Jughead and said, “Why didn’t you go to Southside schools all along, since you lived in Sunnyside?”

Feeling a growing knot of dread form in his stomach, Jughead sighed. They were going to be in here at least until the rain stopped, and now that Sweet Pea had gotten a scent of his blood, he knew that the hunt wouldn’t be over until it was over. He’d changed a lot in the past year, to be honest, since he’d been so uncomfortable at his own birthday party that he’d snapped at his girlfriend. Deep down though, Jughead was still just as introverted as ever, and this sort of game went against his basic programming. He closed his eyes briefly, then forced himself to admit, “Mom fought for it. She went here, as a kid. Dad grew up on the north side with Mr. Andrews, and he went to school over there.”

They stared at him. No one needed to hear that his mom thought going to school on the north side was his best chance at escaping the life of crime his father had descended into. Besides, look at where Jughead was, now. Sometimes he was glad that his mother left and still had yet to return.

He looked over at Fangs, who was pretending to sleep on the other end of Toni’s couch. “Fogarty,” he said sharply, to wake him up. “You don’t get out of this one, either. What’s your real first name?”

Fangs cracked one eye and stared at Jughead. It took a moment for him to wake up enough to respond. When he did, he mumbled, “Fangs is my real first name, asshole.”

Jughead blinked in surprise. “What?” he asked.

The dark-haired Serpent closed his eye again. “My parents actually had the balls to write ‘Fangs’ on my birth certificate. Makes you appreciate names like Forsythe, Bartolomeu, and Antoinette, huh?”

Toni dissolved into laughter again, which brought Fangs’ attention to her. Cracking his eye once more, he said, “Why do you live with your grandpa, T?”

Her laughing stopped abruptly. Without hesitation, she said quickly, “My parents are dead.” Before anyone could react, she turned to Sweet Pea. “Why didn’t you stand up to Penny like Jughead did?”

He stretched his neck, glancing over at Jughead with an unreadable expression. Silence stretched between them. After seemingly gathering his thoughts, Sweet Pea said, “She had enough evidence to put me back in juvie. I wasn’t going back to that shithole.”

Jughead nodded in sympathy and said, “Right?”

Both Sweet Pea and Toni looked at him incredulously. “Wait, what?” said Sweet Pea, frowning. “You’ve been in juvie?”

He smiled meekly. “For arson,” he admitted.

Toni sucked in a breath and grinned. “Wow,” she said, “I had no idea, Jones.” Apparently his middle-school misunderstanding had won him more street cred. Jughead pushed away his memories of that particularly frustrating time in his life, racking his brain for another question.

He looked over at Fangs, who emitted a gentle snore for authenticity. Turning to Toni instead, he said, “Why did you help me, when I came here?” She could have just as easily left him to the Ghoulies. Jughead knew damn well that he hadn’t exactly been endearing when he’d turned up at Southside High, acting like he was higher and mightier than everyone else. 

She shrugged and smiled easily. “You were too cute to die that young,” she explained. Looking over at Sweet Pea, she asked, “Who do you want to date?” 

He groaned, looking away from her with an immediately irritated expression. Glancing back at the anticipation on both their faces, Sweet Pea mumbled something. “Okay, so Jug--”

“No, what was that?” he asked, grinning.

Sweet Pea glared at him. Nostrils flaring, he said, “No one that wants to date me, so it doesn’t fucking matter.”

Toni shook her head. “Oh no, Sweets, you have to answer the question.”

He stood up and walked away from them, toward the door. “No, I’m out,” he growled.

Jughead raised his eyebrows, looking over at Toni. “Do you have any suspicions?” he asked curiously, based on Sweet Pea’s visceral reaction. 

She smiled mysteriously and raised one finger to her lips. Grinning, she said, “It’s still my turn.” Before Jughead could protest, she said, “What are we going to do to get everyone out of those fucking tents?”

The attitude in the room sombered in an instant. Fangs even opened his eyes, watching Jughead to see what his response would be. He frowned at Toni, since it wasn’t like he hadn’t been racking his brain all summer and trying to come up with some sort of solution. The Serpents camping out in Fox Forest right now didn’t have enough money to secure other lodgings. Many of them were doing odd jobs and putting a little bit of money away, but it wouldn’t be enough to purchase anything by the fall. Every place in town that they could possibly rent was currently pinned down by Hiram Lodge, and Jughead felt a basic aversion to asking that man for any sort of help.

But he knew he owed it to these people to find them somewhere better to stay, since his muckraking had brought down the fists of vengeance upon them. When his dad had turned his back on them, Jughead knew that he couldn't walk away from the problems he'd caused them. Once again, his dad was supposed to be taking care of someone, and instead he'd left his son to shoulder his responsibilities. Jughead bitterly steered his thoughts away from that dark road, knowing that nothing good would come from going down it. 

Instead, he looked at his friends on the opposite couch. Toni’s grandfather was one of the people that had been evicted from his trailer and had no other means of leaving town. Even though she was staying with Cheryl, she continually came to the tent city to check on him.

The thought made him pause.

“Cheryl,” he said, looking up at Toni.

She frowned. “What?” she asked, not understanding how he’d gotten from the question she’d asked him to discussing her girlfriend.

“Cheryl’s alone in Thornhill now, right?” he asked. The rumor had spread through Riverdale High that Cheryl demanded emancipation from her mother some weeks before school let out, relocating Penelope to one of the outbuildings on the Blossom grounds. Toni was nodding slowly, her expression still apprehensive. “Well, what we need is time. Everyone is working and saving, but winter will be here before we have enough money set aside to move anyone into a more permanent situation. Some people might be okay, but not most. Do you think Cheryl would be willing to play host?”

Toni piqued her eyebrows, leaning back against the couch. Seemingly lost in thought for a moment, she looked down at her phone. “I can find out,” she said softly, starting to type. 

Jughead sighed. “Otherwise, I have nothing,” he admitted, much as it pained him. He knew that the Serpents could easily contact some suppliers in Greendale and begin selling illegal substances in Riverdale, quickly turning their fortunes and allowing them to rebuild. That was the quick and easy path to destruction, though, in his opinion. Minetta was just waiting for the remnants of the Serpents to give him an excuse for arresting them all, and instilling them as the freshman class of Hiram Lodge's shiny new for-profit prison. Despite what some of the older Serpents said about it, Jughead wasn't willing to let them risk that sort of retribution. He'd keep struggling to make their operations legitimate for their own sakes, even if they didn't realize what he was doing for them.

He looked at Toni and Fangs. After everything he'd put them through, he owed it to them to keep the Serpents out of jail. After his brush with death, Jughead had no illusions about the game they were playing. With as old as they were now, Juvie would seem like a pleasant memory if they were brought up on any sort of charges. Just as Sweet Pea was coming back into the room, Jughead felt a familiar tingle begin in his nose. Drawing in a breath, he turned away to sneeze. 

When he looked back, Toni was smirking. “Told you that hat would give you pneumonia,” she teased. They rolled out their sleeping bags, each person taking one arm of the couch as a pillow. Since Jughead and Sweet Pea would definitely not fit on one couch, they argued over who was going to take the floor. Sweet Pea lost rock paper scissors eventually, as Jughead expected, and he complained loudly about it the entire time that he made up his uncomfortable bed. Outside, rain continued to pelt down on the building. It was washing over the Southside and the Northside alike, as if some sort of cosmic deity was trying to cleanse Riverdale after blood had stained her streets once again. Jughead looked up at the ceiling, regretting that he'd been so busy at the campsite lately he hadn't had time to go to Pop's and work on his novel. In the distance, a thunderclap boomed. It was more impressive than the snoring coming from Fangs and Sweet Pea, but not nearly half as loud. From across the way, Toni's voice quietly said, "I miss home." He sighed, eyes still fixed on the starry pattern of holes in the drop ceiling. " _How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home?_ " He quoted, glancing over at her. Bright eyes stared back at him from across the darkening divide. Toni stared for a moment before looking away and drawing her sleeping bag up to her chin. Even more quietly, she said, "Goodnight, Jug." He let his eyes close, imagining for a moment that it was a scratchy couch in a trailer he was lying on instead. As he drifted to sleep, his mind brought him back to a day when he lay on that couch, the smell of breakfast curling into his nose as a female voice hummed in the kitchen. Jughead, much younger, lay there and listened. And in that instant, he felt completely safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Do I think it's unfair that the implication at the end of season 2 was that FP called it quits on his own gang, and left Jughead to pick up the pieces? Maybe a bit. 
> 
> Also, I'd like to propose the head canon that Alice and Gladys were classmates, and when Alice started fooling around with FP and Hal, she dragged FP from the northside into her life of Serpent crime...stranding him there when she found out she was pregnant and choosing Hal for his money. Enter Gladys to pick up the pieces of FP's heart, not knowing that his unrequited love would hurtle him down a path of alcoholism and self-destruction. I hope she comes back in season 3...the drama!


End file.
